Apple aims a new target in U.S.: the Galaxy Nexus “ice cream sandwich”

The sharp dispute between Apple and Samsung advanced from the German battlefield to the U.S. District Court. This time Apple decided to carry the heavy metal and attacked Samsung’s most important device, the Google Galaxy Nexus smartphone, with four patents involving Android 4.0. The rough patents were labeled by FOSS Patents as “the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.”

Three of the four patents brought in by the motion filled by Apple were granted recently, namely the patent concerning Siri and the unified search, the slide-to-unlock patent and a patent concerning the touchscreen improvements. The “data tapping” patent is older and more yielding and an issue yet to be discussed, though it was successful in the past when Apple won the lawsuit against HTC’s Android smartphones. You can find each of the patents carefully explained on FOSS Patents’ official blog.

Apple attacked the Galaxy Nexus because is one of the official Samsung’s leading device, followed by Nexus S. These “Nexus” smartphones are using the “ice cream sandwich” version of Android (4.o) which is supplied by Google. Even though Google did not enhanced the devices with certain features knowing that the OEM (original equipment manufacturer) will integrate them either way, it is still responsible of Apple’s infringements.

Judge’s decision is to come within few months and until then Google is engaged in Samsung’s battle with Apple and it seems that Google might have to remove from its Nexus devices all the features claimed by the patents. Meanwhile, due to its importance for Samsung, the Galaxy Nexus gained its freedom on the U.S. market.